Hey there! Yes, the last chapter was a very emotional chapter, but it showed that Vincent does have a heart while Cortez's is non-existent…ahem. Anyway, I finally got the right idea (and time) to write this nice little chapter in celebration of the holidays. Enjoy!

Only One Shot

Special Christmas Edition

Chapter 23: Always

For the first time in the entire month of December it began to snow. For practically the entire month no gangs or Crime Lords seemed to be doing anything, as if they were settling in for a month of peace to enjoy the holidays.

Videl looked out the window, watching the snow falling outside in silence. Avril had gone to Heiji's newly bought house to spend time with Nanami for the day. Vegeta was doing god-knows-what, Trunks was downstairs playing cards with Syracuse, and Gohan…

She heard the door open and close downstairs then almost instantly felt arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her towards a muscled chest. Smiling, she leaned against it, feeling a kiss on her neck and a head settling down on her shoulder.

"What are you doing Vid?" Gohan asked; his breath hot against her neck.

"Nothing…" Videl sighed as she softly petted the tail that Gohan had gotten back a week ago, aswell as the rest of his saiya-jin abilities,that was currently wrapped around her waist, causing Gohan to contently purr like a cat near her ear.

"Just reminiscing about all my other Christmas's both good and bad. How did the meeting with your father go?" she asked with slight curiosity.

Ever since Gohan had met with Vincent he had been visiting him nearly everyday. Videl had a feeling that they were planning something and that Vegeta and Avon were in on it, but she never questioned it. After all she was harboring a secret that could only be kept for so long, and if she told him he'd never let her work at the police station anymore.

She knew Gohan would tell her his plans eventually anyway as it was starting to bother him both mentally and physically. His mind would always be somewhere else, protecting his thoughts by blocking their bond with each other, and was constantly in the gym training for something.

"It went fine. We had a good laugh and made some plans to meet at his estate for a Christmas Party…if that's ok with you of course." Gohan asked a bit hesitantly.

"Yeah, we could do that." Videl said thoughtfully and frowned when her mate sighed in relief.

Videl couldn't blame him though, she had been a bit moody lately, and though she kept calm most of the time she could still be set off by the smallest things.

Gohan freaked out about two weeks ago and avoided her for over a week when she tripped over Trunk's shoes and almost dropped the groceries she was carrying, but he had good reason to. Videl chased Trunk all over Gohan's estate with a frying pan for over a week, smashing him to hell and back.

Flashback

Videl grumbled angrily as she was finally able to open the door. She was quite proud though for the pink carton of Grade A eggs resting atop one of the two paper bags.

She had to literally beat people with a cane, which she took from the old lady she knocked out beforehand, before she could grab the last carton of eggs and dash to the cash register to get it purchased while being followed by an angry mob of women.

Unfortunately as she took another step she failed to notice the pair of shoes resting carelessly on the floor infront of her. While the other shoes were placed neatly OUT OF THE WAY these were thrown infront of the door without a second thought of who may come in.

She tripped over the shoes with a gasp of surprise and watched in slow motion as the bags began to come out of her hands and the eggs slide off from atop the bag. As she was holding onto the bags of grocery she couldn't catch them. Luckily for her, Nero saw the whole thing.

Being the extremely smart and incredibly fast dog he was, he ran, slid on the carpet, and caught the carton of eggs in his mouth before it could splatter onto the mahogany wood with a flying leap.

The other groceries, fortunately, did not come out of the paper bags. Videl of course did not give a damn about any of the other groceries except for the eggs. She merely bought the others because they needed to restock.

Taking the eggs from the black dog, she thanked him over and over, hugging him and giving him promises of a great rewards if he followed her into the kitchen. She glared at the shoes evilly, making even Nero shrink back in fear at the glare, and stood up.

She walked into the kitchen, Nero following for his reward, and saw the four men playing cards: Vegeta, Gohan, Heiji, and her target Trunks. Syracuse and Avon was merely watching for the moment, waiting for their turn.

She placed the groceries on the counter, the slight noise making them acknowledge her in the room. She smiled as she walked up to oven and pulled out the chicken for dinner. The men's heads snapped towards her at the smell, mouth watering.

Soon their watering mouths turned to gaping ones of disbelief as she gave the entire chicken to Nero who seemed to smile as he trotted off. Putting the groceries away she left the eggs on the counter and took out a large black pan, making the men get confused.

"Do you see these eggs?" They nodded. "They were very hard eggs to get, I had to fight for them at the store." she said matter of factly and they raised an eyebrow as if to say 'and you're point is?'

She just smiled at them. "Yet as I was entering the house I suddenly tripped over something that almost made my precious package splatter across the floor."

The men began to get a bit nervous. "Would anyone care to tell me who the owner of this wonderful pair of shoes is?"

She whipped out the shoes she almost tripped over and the men looked at Trunks who gulped and meekly raised his hand. They swore the temperature in the room dropped as Videl smirked.

"I see…" In a flash Videl was pounding Trunks silly with the frying pan.

"DIDN'T (PANG!) YOU (PANG!) EVER (PANG!) LEARN (PANG!) NOT (PANG!) TO (PANG!) PUT (PANG!) YOUR (PANG!) FUCKING (PANG!) SHOES (PANG!) FROM (PANG!) HELL (PANG!) IN (PANG!) PLACES (PANG!) WHERE (PANG!) PEOPLE (PANG!) LIKE (PANG!) ME (PANG!) CAN (PANG!) TRIP (PANG!) OVER (PANG!) THEM?! (PANG! PANG! PANG!)"

Trunks, barely able to stand on his legs, hauled ass out of the room. To say that the men remaining were scared was an understatement. They were so terrified they almost peed in their pants.

She glanced darkly in their direction, holding the Frying Pan of Doom. Glancing at each other, they scrambled out of the room just as Videl smashed the pan down on the table they were playing cards at. Giving a war cry, Videl ran after them.

End Flashback

Videl giggled at the memory. Trunks didn't dare to come back to Gohan's for a week and when he did he always double checked to make sure his shoes were always out of the way as well as flinched wheneversomeone even mentioneda frying pan.

Once when Videl pulled out the frying pan to cook something with, he ran out of the house screaming and almost caused an accident when flying down the road in his car. He then promptly refused to come back in until Videl was 10 ft away from it and it was placed in a secure place with chains, but even then he was hesitant.

Maybe I shouldn't have chased after him in Gohan's car after smashing his brains out for those shoes…Videl giggled, but then again he did learn his lesson…

"What are you giggling about?" Gohan whispered in her ear.

She smiled at him, turning and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Just reminiscing."

His smile soon became a frown and his eyes began to get sad. Videl noticed this and frowned as well. "What's wrong?"

He averted his eyes and sighed softly. "Nothing."

"Gohan…" she whispered pleadingly and when he didn't so much as even acknowledge that he was listening to her, her eye twitched and said in a more dangerous tone, "Gohan, answer me, what's the problem?"

He glanced at her and sighed wistfully before pulling something out from behind him that turned out to be a present. "I wanted to give you this before…Christmas."

Surprised, she took the small carefully wrapped box and held it in her lap, staring at it. It was a necklace shaped box wrapped in red wrapping paper with shiny bubbles and topped with a white bow.

"Well what are you waiting for?" he said with a slight smirk, his eyes twinkled a bit as he looked at her. "Open it."

Videl rolled her eyes to act annoyed, though they both knew she was excited, and began to slowly take off the wrapping paper. He frowned at her.

"Videl…" he whined and she giggled.

"You know I do this just to torture you Gohan."

Gohan smirked. "I bet I know a few other things you do to torture me…"

Videl blushed crimson. "Gohan!"

He chuckled to himself as Videl, still red, took off the wrapping paper and opened the necklace box to reveal…Gohan's mother's ring that Vincent had given to him. She gasped in surprise, turning in his arms to look at him better, while he gave her a soft smile.

"Gohan—"

He leaned in and caught her lips with his before she could say anything. Her eyes slowly closed and her arms wrapped around his neck. He licked her lips, asking for entrance, and she complied, letting his tongue explore before finding hers and battling for dominance.

After a while they parted, both breathing heavily with dazed eyes. Gohan took the ring fashioned onto the chain like a necklace and placed it around her neck. Smiling, he kissed the side of her neck before picking her up bridal style and carrying her into his room, where he placed her onto his bed.

He lay down beside her and she snuggled up to him, reveling in the warmth he provided her with. Then as if she forgot something, she sat up and began searching in the nightstand. Gohan propped himself up on one elbow as he watched on with a raised eyebrow.

Videl finally found what she was looking for and placed it in Gohan's hands to be inspected. "I didn't wrap it yet but it's for you."

Curious, Gohan opened up the little box and found a necklace with a little gold angel on it. The angel was 24kgold and had a very smalldiamond cross in its hands.

"After everything that's happened I decided to get it for you, sort of like a guardian angel." Videl said a bit shyly as she helped Gohan put it on.

"I already have a guardian angel," Gohan replied softly as he looked deeply into her eyes then gave her another smile. "But I'll consider this one as your little helper."

Videl rolled her eyes, though she was smiling, and lay back down on the bed. Gohan lay down as well and Videl snuggled up to him for warmth, her eyes closed in content. Gohan smiled at her actions, but soon began to frown as he fingered the golden angel.

"Videl…" he called softly. Videl made a small "hm…" sound, showing she was awake and listening, but barely. "If I were to leave…would you wait for me?" he whispered.

The room was silent as Gohan lay close to Videl in the dark of the room, waiting for her answer. Finally, he heard the whispered voice of Videl reply, "Always…" before falling fast asleep. Smiling, Gohan pulled the blanket around them and wrapped an arm around Videl before falling fast asleep as well.

This chapter was all about Gohan and Videl. I thought they needed some 'alone' time before the big finale and all…whoops did I say that? Anyway I put them through enough hell already and it IS almost Christmas after all so I thought, why not? As for everything else said and read…I'll let you assume things yourself. (winks)

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